Green is the sixth album by the American band R.E.M. It was their debut major label release for Warner Bros., released in November 1988. Green was notably the first album to feature two songs to reach the top spot on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, "Orange Crush," and "Stand."

Background and recording

With the release of Document in 1987, R.E.M. had fulfilled its contract with I.R.S. Records. The band decided to switch to a major record label due to the lack of adequate promotion outside of the United States. In 1988, R.E.M. signed a $10 million contract with Warner Bros. Records for their next five albums. Under the terms of the contract, the group was given complete ownership of the songs.

Green was R.E.M.'s first album for Warner Brothers, and took a total of four months to record and mix, and was released on November 7, 1988, one day before the 1988 presidential election. The members of R.E.M. consciously changed their usual recording practices in order to avoid falling into the trap of putting out the same album year after year. Bill Berry, Peter Buck and Mike Mills learned each other's instruments and frequently switched roles during the recording. Michael Stipe also partook in the new songwriting process. Instead of writing lyrics to go with completed songs as he had done on previous albums, he began writing the lyrics during or before the songwriting.

The band's new approach to recording led to different instrumentation from previous albums. The songs "You Are the Everything," "The Wrong Child" and "Hairshirt" were the first to feature Buck's mandolin, which would later become part of the band's signature sound. Buck also played the drums on the untitled final track of the album. Mills played keyboards on several songs, a role he would return to in subsequent albums. The song "Orange Crush" featured Stipe singing though a megaphone. He would later use the same technique in the world tour to promote the album. The hard rock of "Turn You Inside-Out" seems to presage Monster, which was released 3 albums later. Several songs, "Pop Song 89," "Get Up" and "Stand" seem like quirky R.E.M versions of commercial, upbeat pop.

Reception

With warm critical reaction and the conversion of many new fans, Green ultimately went double-platinum in the U.S., reaching #12, and peaked at #27 in the UK. It was R.E.M.'s first gold album in the UK, making it their European breakthrough. The band would tour extensively in support of the album throughout 1989, before beginning work on 1991's Out of Time.

Packaging and artwork

The cover art was painted by New York City minimalist line painter Jon McCafferty. Promotional copies of the album were housed in a mauve, cloth-covered Digipack, with the title and artist debossed and a number "4" embossed over both of the "R"s. The color and texture are made to imitate tree bark.

The original pressings of the album and cassette tape covers had the number 4 spot varnished over the R in both "Green" and "R.E.M." In return, "R. Stand" appears instead of "4. Stand" on the track list on the back cover. Allegedly, this was a product of an early typing mistake: due to "4" being a number very close to "R" on the keyboard, "Green" was once misspelled "G4een", and the mistake was adopted this way. The album was the first by the band to feature printed lyrics, although only the lyrics to "World Leader Pretend" appeared.

Green is the first R.E.M. album to also be released in a special edition version, though it was only released as a promotional CD. R.E.M. would go on to create a special edition version of each subsequent album they released.

Although the title of the album is Green, the cover artwork to the LP is orange in color (this was changed to a lighter shade of yellow for some versions of the CD and cassette tape.) The reason for this is that, if one stares at the orange image for several seconds and then closes their eyes, the negative image he will then see is green. When viewed negatively in this manner, the cover art appears to depict green grass.

Singleactiongreen, a box set containing several singles from Green, was released to promote the album.

Tour

The "Green" world tour began in 1989 and took place in arena-sized venues. The tour was much larger in scope than the "Work" tour that supported the previous album. This was especially true in venues outside of the United States due to Warner Brother's ability to market the band overseas. On the final night of the 11-month trek to support Green, the band performed the album in order, from start to finish. It marked the only live performance of "The Wrong Child," and one of the few live performances of "Hairshirt." Having spent close to a year touring, the band decided not to tour in support of their subsequent two albums.

Some songs from Green—such as "Pop Song 89" and "Orange Crush"—had appeared occasionally on the "Work" tour in 1987. Though the lyrics were embryonic, the melodies and arrangements were similar to those that appeared on the finished record. Also, the band began playing versions of "Low" and "Belong" in the later part of the Green Tour, both of which would appear on their next album Out Of Time.

Track listing

All songs written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe.

Side one – "Air side"

1. "Pop Song 89" – 3:04
2. "Get Up" – 2:39
3. "You Are the Everything" – 3:41
4. "Stand" – 3:10
5. "World Leader Pretend" – 4:17
6. "The Wrong Child" – 3:36

Side two – "Metal side"

7. "Orange Crush" – 3:51
8. "Turn You Inside-Out" – 4:16
9. "Hairshirt" – 3:55
10. "I Remember California" – 4:59
11. "Eleventh, Untitled Song" – 3:10

Track listing notes:

• On the vinyl release, R.E.M. labeled side one (tracks 1-6) as the "Air side" and side two (tracks 7-11) as the "Metal side."
• Track 4 ("Stand") is listed on the album as track "R."
• Track 11, unlisted on the back cover and unnamed on the disc, is copyrighted under the title, "11". BMI It is listed on the iTunes Store as simply "Untitled".

Personnel

R.E.M.

• Bill Berry – drums, backing vocals, bass guitar on "You Are the Everything", "The Wrong Child", and "Hairshirt"
• Peter Buck – guitar, mandolin, drums on "Eleventh, Untitled Song"
• Mike Mills – bass guitar, keyboards, accordion, backing vocals
• Michael Stipe – vocals

Additional musicians

• Bucky Baxter – pedal steel guitar on "World Leader Pretend"
• Jane Scarpantoni – cello on "World Leader Pretend"
• Keith LeBlanc – percussion on "Turn You Inside-Out"

Production

• Bill Berry – production
• Peter Buck – production
• Thom Cadley – engineering (Bearsville)
• Jem Cohen – photography
• George Cowan – engineering (Bearsville)
• Jay Healy – engineering
• Tom Laune – engineering (Ardent)
• Scott Litt – production, engineering
• Bob Ludwig – mastering, at Masterdisk, New York City, New York, United States
• Jon McCafferty – packaging and photography
• Mike Mills – production
• Frank Olinsky and Manhattan Design – packaging
• Michael Stipe – production, packaging, and photography
• Michael Tighe – photography

Release history

In 2005, Warner Brothers Records issued an expanded two-disc edition of Green which includes a CD, a DVD-Audio disc containing a 5.1-channel surround sound mix of the album done by Elliot Scheiner, lyrics, and the original CD booklet with expanded liner notes.

Green

Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
United Kingdom		Warner Bros.	vinyl LP	WX 234
			Compact Disc	7599-25795-2
United States		Warner Bros.	LP	1-25795
			Compact Disc	2-25795
			cassette tape	4-25795
Canada		Warner Music Canada	LP	1-25795
			Compact Disc	2-25795
			cassette tape	4-25795
Germany		Warner Music Germany	Compact Disc	7599-25795-2
Japan		Warner Music Japan	Compact Disc	25P2-2389
Argentina		Warner Bros.	LP	WEA 80127
Brazil		Warner Bros.	LP	6708035
Greece		Warner Bros.	LP	925795-1
Israel		Warner Bros.	LP	BAN 925773-1
Mexico		Warner Bros.	LP	LXWB-6813
Peru		Warner Bros.	cassette tape	cn-wbr-0257945-4
South Africa		Warner Bros./Tusk	LP	WBC 1654
			Compact Disc	WBCD 1654
Australia		Warner Bros.	Compact Disc	9257952
United States		Warner Bros.	Compact Disc/DVD-Audio DualDisc	73948

Box sets

Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalog	Notes
Australia		Warner Bros.	Compact Disc box set	9362460742	Packaged with Out of Time
Argentina		Warner Bros.	Compact Disc box set	9362 47180-2	Packaged with New Adventures in Hi-Fi, entitled "Doble Dosis"
France		WEA	Compact Disc box set	WE 872	Packaged with New Adventures in Hi-Fi

Chart performance

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1988	Billboard 200	12
1988	UK Albums Chart	27

Singles

Year	Song	Chart	Position
1988	"Orange Crush"	Billboard Modern Rock Tracks	1
1988	"Orange Crush"	Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	1
1988	"Pop Song 89"	Billboard Modern Rock Tracks	16
1988	"Stand"	Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	1
1988	"Stand"	Billboard Modern Rock Tracks	1
1989	"Pop Song 89"	Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	14
1989	"Stand"	Billboard Hot 100	6
1989	"Turn You Inside-Out"	Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	7
1989	"Turn You Inside-Out"	Billboard Modern Rock Tracks	10
1989	"Stand"	UK Singles Chart	51
1989	"Orange Crush"	UK Singles Chart	28
1989	"Stand" (re-release)	UK Singles Chart	47

Sales certifications

Organization	Level	Date
RIAA – U.S.	Gold	January 10, 1989
	Platinum	February 14, 1989
	Double Platinum	August 17, 1994
BPI – UK	Silver	February 1, 1989
	Gold	June 28, 1989
	Platinum	May 1, 1994

References

External links

• R.E.M.HQ on Green

* (DVD-Audio edition)